Meet the Leaseholders

Dudley Neighbors Incorporated welcomes a new family to the community land trust!

Manahile A. Kibret came from Ethiopia in October of 2005, she lived in Cambridge and worked as a parking garage attendant. Fekadu Woldegebriel and their 4 children joined Manahile in the United States in December of 2011. Fekadu upon coming to the US also took on a job as a parking attendant.

When the family came together in 2011 they lived in an apartment near Roxbury Crossing. After many attempts at homeownership Fekadu learned of the lottery for the land trust home at DNI located at what is today 16 North Avenue. He successfully provided all the documentation to meet the lottery criteria, drew number 1 in the lottery that was conducted in September of 2015 and closed on their home in January of 2016.

Fekadu was asked why he and his family came to the United States, he said, " I came to the United States because of the economy and the future of our children".

DNI along with partners like YouthBuild Boston, The Department of Neighborhood Development, The Carpenter's Union, Madison Vocational High School and Boston Private Bank are proud to have helped play a role in the development of this family’s future. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Diane Dujon, a homeowner on the land trust who has lived in Roxbury and Dorchester her whole life, proudly states, “I’m a City girl. I appreciate having a house in the City that I can afford. And especially with the prices of houses now I don’t know how people could afford it. The fact that I got my house is blessing”. Diane has lived in a land trust home since 1998. As a single mom as well as a caretaker for her mother, she needed a three-bedroom house but never thought she’d be able to own her home on her salary at UMASS Boston. Now in her late 60s, Diane says that one of the most important things to her about the land trust is that “it stabilizes the neighborhood. Once people move into their home, they don’t leave. Out of all these people only one person has moved so I know my neighbors. We watch out for each other and help each other out”.